Throughout lockdown we all had to adjust to a new way of working or the ‘New Normal’.

Lockdown has affected every single one of us in good and bad ways, and I thought how can I turn this situation into a positive one. I have always worked in offices where everyone is present with a day of remote working here and there if necessary. I never thought that working remotely full time was something I would ever be able to do, but was always keen to try.

I had been working from ‘home’ in Northern Ireland for about 12 weeks when I decided that a good place for me to go would be Lisbon, Portugal. I had been there a couple of times before and attended Web Summit there a few years previous. I knew Lisbon had a huge tech scene because Web Summit had been held there so that got me thinking about coworking spaces in the city.

Needing a desperate change from the cramped and cluttered front room in my mum’s house I got on to researching co-working spaces in and around the Lisbon area. Being a designer and visual person I seem to always go to Instagram when I am trying to find new places to go, maybe that is the millennial in me. I searched for ‘coworking lisbon’ and the first place I found was Well & Work, an old shop storage unit that had been renovated into a wellbeing work space that focuses on making you relaxed and more productive in your surroundings. This sounded idyllic to me! To find out more about Well & Work have a browse on their website: https://www.wellandwork.co/en

I pitched the idea to Tim and his words were “Go for it, everyone in the office will be so jealous”.  Once I had asked him this meant I couldn’t go back on my decision no matter how scared I was, considering there is currently a global pandemic happening.

I really enjoyed working in Well & Work, it did help that it was 30°C most days and it was a 5 minute walk to the beach. They had ample space for you to work and quiet places to take those important zoom calls, and to be honest the Wi-Fi was better than mine at home.

Working in Well & Work was exactly how I wanted it to be, quiet, beautifully designed and just generally a peaceful place to be more productive. I also met a few new faces, I always find it interesting meeting new people from similar industries and learning something new from them. Did I mention it was right next to the beach?

As part of the coworking package with Well & Work they had wellbeing classes that I could take part in like surfing, paddle boarding, yoga and HIIT training – unfortunately I never had the time to do any while I was working but maybe next time! 

All in all I had a great experience and I would really recommend this if you are able to work remotely. If you can do what you are doing at home why not do it in the sunshine?